The Hungarian link

Not too many players have represented both Gainsborough Trinity and Workington during their respective careers ...

... I can think of three or four at most – but probably the best known of those who did was Hungarian, Johnny Haasz.

Born in 1934, his career started in his native Hungary but the Hungarian uprising in the mid fifties led to Janos, to give him his proper name, fleeing the country and eventually landing in Britain, Doncaster to be precise, where his brother ran a hotel.

When he tried to revive his career in England, the Hungarian FA labelled him as a deserter and he, and others, were banned from playing professional football. He worked as a miner in South Yorkshire and turned out for one of the colliery teams.

It wasn’t long before he attracted the interest of Gainsborough Trinity where he played until the ban was lifted in 1960. He returned to the professional ranks and signed for Swansea Town.
Workington signed him in the summer of 1961and he scored the only goal of the game, his debut, at Chesterfield on the opening day of the ’61-62 campaign.

In two seasons with us, Johnny made 56 appearances for the first team scoring 15 goals in the process.

His goals tally should have been more after he became the only player during Workington’s Football League era to score four in an away game. Sadly, that magnificent four goal blast, in a 4-0 win at Accrington Stanley, was expunged from the records when the Peel Park club folded in 1962.

Johnny’s only hat-trick in Workington colours, therefore, was for the Reserves in a 4-2 Northern Counties League win over Annfield Plain.

After his time with Reds he subsequently played for Cambridge United, Corby Town and Scarborough.

Johnny passed away last summer, aged 83, but the club didn’t learn of his death until recently.

So in true Workington tradition, we belatedly pay our respects to a player who certainly made his mark at Borough Park.